Creating an Artist Business Card

Artists meet people in a variety of places – at art shows, museums, field trips, or even trips to the library. A business card is the perfect way to help that new friend remember the artist’s website to visit it later. The friend might even share the news with family and friends. What does an ideal artist’s business card look like?

A key is that it should reflect the style and mood of the artist. Artists come in a wealth of varieties. There are serious architectural photographers and playful watercolorists. Think about what your style is. What kind of a mood do you wish to convey with your card? That will help get you started in choosing the fonts and layout for your efforts.

One good place to look for font options is FontSquirrel.com. They have a wealth of fonts in every style imaginable.

It’s best if the image shown is one done by you, rather than a stock image. The image is a reflection of you and your style. You are the best one to convey that.

For example, look at this business card done by Walt Disney. It captures his personal style which is now recognized around the world.

Walt Disney card

Here’s another one that most people will recognize.

Chuck Jones

Back then a complicated card would have been cost prohibitive. But in our modern world of color printers it’s easy for even a starting artist to get a card which better reflects their range of ability.

Here’s a card for Louis Ruth photography. He’s well known for his glowing-light landscapes. You can click on the card to see his portfolio. Someone who was handed this card would have an instant sense of what he was about.

Louis Ruth

In comparison, this card is for artist Vicki Smith who has an altogether different style. Again, click through to see her images.

Vicki Smith

How about this card from Pam Lisak, who did a Zentangle hands-on demo with the BVAA? It uses both sides and has the fun feel of a game card. It gives information about her and what she does in a playful, friendly fashion.

Pam Lisak

So the key is for a card both convey the “useful” information in an easy to read format as well as convey a sense of what the artist is all about. Especially if the artist meets someone at a busy event with many other artists around – it’s important that the card convey the artist’s focus clearly.

Here’s our BVAA card, front and back. It has our logo and details about what we do. The QR code is so someone with a smartphone can take a photo of that and instantly go to our website. You can generate free QR codes here – QR Code Generator

BVAA Business Card

Don’t forget about the card’s back! That can be the perfect place to put your artist’s statement, a large sized image, or other material. Maybe a future version of our card could have a montage of various members’ images as background on the back, to further demonstrate our range.

You can get inexpensive cards from VistaPrint, Staples, and many other sources. You can also print them out on your home printer.